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Sunday, July 27, 2014

Non-Horror Exploitation: Hammerhead (1987)

Hammerhead (yeah I know it strangely enough just says Hammer on the left but the movie IS called Hammerhead) is one of Enzo G. Castellari's more unknown action movies. That's a shame because this really is a highly entertaining movie by the Italian maestro of the B-movie. This time Castellari put his mind on Miami Vice, Scarface and Beverly Hills Cop, and mixed it together to make his own movie: Hammerhead.Police officer Hammer is called up by a frightened old friend who asks for his help. When they meet his friend tells him there are murderers after him. Before he can tell him more he is in fact murdered. Just before he dies he manages to give Hammer a key. Hammer starts his own investigation that leads him deep into the drug scene of Jamaica and soon finds himself chased by crooks looking for the key.

Daniel Greene, who is 'known' for his role as cyborg Paco in Sergio Martino's Hands of Steel, got the lead in this movie portraying Hammer (nicknamed Hammerhead). Greene did a fine job as the quiet cyborg but has a harder time portraying the poplair, charismatic detective. Luckily he does do a good job in the many action scenes. Greene's partner is Jose, played by Jorge Gil, who brings a lot of life to the movie and does a good job portraying what can only be described as Tony Montana's not so serious nephew.Hammerhead pretty much ticks all the boxes in things you wanna see in an action flick. The chase scenes are spectaculair and the fighting sequences overall are filmed very effectively. Of course there can't be 93 minutes of straight action. There is even a sentimental little plotline about Hammer's ex-girlfriend and his daughter. These are the moments that the movie tends to get pretty bad, especially due to the frighteningly bad acting of Hammer's daughter. Fortunately the last 30/40 minutes of the movie completely make up for it. That's the moment where the movie goes completely out of control. What follows is non-stop action which is shown very explicitly. There is one magnificent scene that features a bad guy, Hammer's face and a circular saw. I won't spoil too much, but it's a straight classic in the history of the action genre.